How to Stop Warez Pirates: Ask Them Nicely
Written by enigmax on June 18, 2007Organizations such as the MPAA, RIAA and IFPI spend millions of dollars enforcing copyrights by getting people fined and even jailed for file-sharing. So when a small developer sees his work pirated on the internet, what can he do about it with his tiny resources? Easy. He emails the warez group, turns on the charm and asks them nicely to leave him alone in the future - and they agree!
Trey Harrison is a 29 year old, living in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and a couple of cats. He enjoys writing music and creating music videos and has just invested the last 7 years to bring out a PC application called ‘Salvation‘.
“I imagined it as a tool for creating custom video and lighting controls at music venues” says Trey. “My first customer Denne continues to please crowds with his mixes at club Rai in Moscow, and recently the Inside Us All VJ collective began using it to power some awesome multi-projector HD displays in the UK. It’s a rather powerful realtime graphics tool now, and one of my next goals is to make that power accessible within After Effects and Final Cut.”
Then came the inevitable news - ‘Salvation’ had been cracked and made available on the internet by a release group known as BlueBeta3D who actually displayed their email address in the .NFO. So Trey dropped them a line, to see if they could come to some sort of arrangement…..
___________________________________________
Subject: Is there any negotiating with pirates?
From: Trey Harrison
Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 20:56:27 -0700
To: BlueBeta3D@hushmail.com
Hi, you guys have recently released a pirated version of my software called
“Salvation”. I’m not very surprised - actually I’m flattered - but I was
wondering if we could arrange a meeting to discuss the possibility of you
not doing this any more?
Best,
Trey Harrison
http://www.harrisondigitalmedia.com
___________________________________________
Trey explains, “I was pretty sure I’d never hear from them, so I sent off an email to the company I purchased my anti-piracy protection tool from, as well as an email to the hosting company that is hosting the warezed copy. Who responded first? The pirates.”
___________________________________________
Subject: Re: Is there any negotiating with pirates?
From:
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 17:11:27 +0100
To: “Trey Harrison”
Hi Trey,
We appreciate your comments and understand the role of developers ,
we only released it so many people who may not have access or
privileges could try this and learn. Hopefully its given more
global coverage. Apologies for any grievance it may have caused. We
also noted your comments and will not release this again. Good Luck
and best wishes for future developement.
Greets
___________________________________________
As Trey just achieved what the RIAA and MPAA can’t achieve with millions of dollars, we decided to ask him a few questions about this unique moment.
1. Considering the huge amount time and effort you put into this project, it’s no surprise there were some strong emotions when you realized your work had been pirated. You mentioned your emotions cycled through being pissed, to vengeful to honored. Could you tell us a little about the background to those emotions?
I felt proud and victimized at the same time. Most of my time is spent implementing features and fixing bugs at the request of paying customers, so when a cracking group puts the program out there free for anyone to download, it has a real impact on the investment that my customers have made, that potential customers might make, and the time that I’ve put into it. But at the same time, getting that recognition by the warez groups as being crack-worthy is a milestone that I’m proud to have reached.
2. You mentioned that Salvation was protected by a 3rd party anti-piracy tool. Which tool was it, what were your considerations when choosing it and do you feel that you’ve received good value for money?
I wanted to distribute Salvation online as shareware with a 30 day expiration. I purchased “Armadillo Software Passport” hoping it would catch and stop the average person who tries to set their system clock back in time, but I knew it would probably be cracked by a warez group at some point. There are more expensive anti-piracy tools out there but I think they are all equally useless against a determined cracker. The Armadillo guys provided great tech support along the way, so up until the day it was pirated I was very satisfied with their product and service.
3. You emailed the warez release group, anti-piracy company and hosting company to complain about your product being pirated. When the warez group responded first and in a very polite and positive manner, what were your feelings?
I was pleasantly surprised! I always thought warez groups were elusive and impossible to get in touch with. The fact that they responded was amazing, but the idea of them putting a halt on the release and promising not to do it anymore… it really blew my mind. I think I may have stumbled across a revolutionary business strategy.
4. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on copy-protection and DRM mechanisms. Have your anti-piracy company responded yet and if so, what did they say about Salvation now being available on the internet DRM-free, despite your investment?
I sent the Armadillo guys an email that included the pirated .zip package. I was hoping they would thank me, offer an apology, and study it to improve their protection scheme, but they didn’t even respond. I’m not sure what to expect from them at this point. Maybe they’ll have something to say after this interview is published. =)
5. Without a big marketing budget, it can be very hard indeed to get your product noticed on the internet. Even big artists such as Kylie Minogue appear to be using internet leaks to gain publicity. Have you considered that the extra publicity your software will get due to it’s availability on the internet (and articles like this), might actually improve your exposure and sales figures?
It’s an unusual story so it will probably attract attention. I just hope the attention is from paying customers rather than pirates. TorrentFreaks pay for all of their software, right? =)
6. One school of thought suggests that far from being all bad, pirate software users can be useful, providing a valuable source of knowledge about software products on internet discussion forums, even going as far to offer a kind of free-of-charge product support for paying customers. What are your general feelings about piracy and have your recent experiences changed the way you feel about it?
I’ll admit I’ve copied an mp3 here and there without giving it much thought. All the work that goes into creating a good song is easily taken for granted when your computer brings it to you in a matter of seconds. When Salvation was pirated it really opened my eyes to the fact that piracy has a real impact on real people. I used to think anti-piracy organizations like the RIAA and MPAA were pure evil but I’ve realized now that we share the same basic interest in preventing piracy. I just wish they would wake up and realize that suing grandmas and little girls isn’t going to increase sales. Maybe they should bring me on as a consultant - I’m cheaper than a team of lawyers and I have proven success in the field. =)
We contacted BlueBeta3D and they said “Our release are aimed for purely for people who wish to learn and do not have the benefits/or just help to extend an evaluation.” They also made it quite clear that they are against any commercialization of piracy and maybe, just maybe, they’re also men of their word in respect of leaving Trey alone in the future.
Who said you can’t negotiate with pirates?
Previously: Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk24)
Next: HTTP Traffic Overtakes P2P, Courtesy of YouTube
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[quote comment="118251"]«05:51:32» {@[PRE]} [PRED] [ Harrison.Digital.Media.Salvation.MX.v1.0-BB3D ] [ 0DAY / BB3D ] [ 15.1MB in 4F ] got released 44d 3h 11m 26s ago [2007-05-05][/quote]
Lol your a dumb fuck.
However now that I think of it, what’s funnier is the time stamp on that was before “BlueBeta3D” as that gay ass group isnt even in any database. It was released by BB3D.
This is a gay worthless torrent, fuck torrents, fuck BlueBeta3D, fuck this site, and fuck you :)
Which goes to show you, that this is no lesson at all, just because 1 group doesnt release your shit, there will always be 600 more to release it for 1 that doesnt. For all of you who didn’t know, this is what will make piracy unstopable. So MPAA / RIAA it really is pointless to try, think a little bit more, and pull your heads from your asses, your locking up some of the smartest individual’s in the world.
[quote comment="118784"]However now that I think of it, what’s funnier is the time stamp on that was before “BlueBeta3D” as that gay ass group isnt even in any database. It was released by BB3D.
This is a gay worthless torrent, fuck torrents, fuck BlueBeta3D, fuck this site, and fuck you :)[/quote]
I fucking lol’d.
so piracy hurts ALL developers eh?
HA! someone using a program, who was never going to be able to afford it, ever, is not going to hurt squat, it doesn’t lessen the people who do pay for it at all, and it DOES increase the user base skills and word of mouth.
any one using software to make money should pay for it, no argument there.
but a 15 year old kid using it to see what it does is another matter entirely.
and especially for the smaller developers, warez spreads your product to markets you’d NEVER have had otherwise, a few people using it for free VS the word of mouth that spreads the name to people who will pay for it FAR exceeds the POTENTIAL loss of sale!
it really comes down to a matter of greed at times, want your pie and eat it too.
if something is WORTH having, most people will pay for it, and some never will.
either way, you’re never going to stop piracy, so just deal with it as best you can.
never the less.
sceneban bb3d / bluebeta3d (same group i guess? (bb3d=scene / bluebeta3d=torrent?) for fucking even starting this nonsense bullshit, you idiots.
Heh, Armadillo can be cracked in about 2 seconds by anyone now. I suggest you find a better protector. But they’re pretty much worthless, because if you can run the app, it can be cracked.
[quote comment="118218"][quote comment="118013"]
Bullshit. THere are tons of free or very cheap photoshop clones, ditto OS’s, internet packages and DAW software. Piracy is not positive, it’s negative, and the people who pirate photoshop don’t put smaller amounts of money in the hands of the small-time developers who get hardest. Crossing over from a smaller package, such as Paint.net, to photoshop, is an easy task, once you actually are in the position to pay for it. Piracy harms all developers.
My 2c.[/quote]
Just to piss you off… Enjoy everyone!
Adobe Photoshop CS3
http://www.demonoid.com/files/download/1183661/930979
Piracy is stealing, So call it sharing and you can say your practicing what you were raised to do.
This app developer wanted DRM, used flawed DRM (all DRM is flawed, by definition, see elsewhere for details). DRM turned out to be flawed (as expected). Developer is surprisingly calm that he paid for DRM which (as with all DRM) failed to deliver what it claimed.
…and ?
He could open-source the work, potentially adding developers, he could add “better” DRM, potentially reducing the number of users.
Or he could stop f*cking his customers.
Am I some freeloader, expecting everybody else to give me their stuff for free? No, I am not. I sell a PDF online. The content (http://steve-parker.org/sh/sh.shtml) is up there for free; you can buy it in PDF form, and that is a good old PDF (no restrictions), you can do what you want with it. It also comes with the sample scripts which are linked from the tutorial.
It’s all there for free, on the web, and up for sale, for those who want it. It’s not going to make me rich, but who says that I deserve to be rich just because people like the stuff I write?
Moaning about “I paid for this DRM and it didn’t even work” is pathetic. Realising that the warez d00dz understand this better than those who sell “DRM” is only lesson #1.
Believing that DRM can have any positive impact on your work is - at best - misguided.
I see that there are a surprising amount of people who have justified illegal and unethical behavior. Although I probably shouldn’t be surprised.
The open-source movement exists to take power out of the hands of the corporations who feel they have the right to charge whatever exorbitant amounts for their software that they want.
If there is software out there that you want, but it’s too expensive, I can pretty much guarantee you that there is an open-source software that does the same thing somewhere else.
Use that, don’t steal.
And serious kudos to the warez group for taking down those files. If you truly believe in freedom and you truly respect your fellow developer, you’ll respect his right to do whatever he wants with his software.
So rather than crack his site and steal his software, why don’t you follow your own mantra and develop your own version rather than being a one-trick-pony n00b and stealing it?
[quote comment="118037"]Boo on BlueBeta3D!!!
BlueBeta3D did a crapload of harm by giving in! Software is not for making money, and that’s one less programmer learning their lesson. Programmers have a calling and a duty to write software that’s useful for no other reason than to help a guy out. If he’s too selfish for that honor to be enough for him, then he needs to find another hobby or career.[/quote]
Oh bs. current games that are out cost millions, and who the hell would spend that much on a game if it was just for the money… Sure, independent people could pitch in… but how would the industry progress then? What kind of progress WOULD be made?
I am sorry; but that is one of the stupidest, most ignorant statements I have ever read.
I will be honest, I pirate shit all the time. I paid for a damn rapidshare account so I could pirate en masse…. But no way in hell do I believe that shit is true, and I don’t think you do either. I try not to pirate stuff from independent developers very much, but even when I do it is not because of some bullshit like that..
Let me pose a question for you if you actually believe that shit….
Do you pirate stuff?
I will assume that the answer is yes….
Did you know that there are hundreds of thousands of people that can program and release their stuff for free? How much of that do you use?
There are some genuinely good pieces of software out there, but if you want the best, the most compatible, the fastest, the prettiest looking, and the most fun EVERYTHING on your computer…. you are going to have to pay for at least something on your pc. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that EVERYTHING was free in the pc world with the exception of games… You have a legit free windows because ms released windows as freeware(hypothetical of course :P) You have the biggest, baddest computer on the fattest pipe… and you want to play a game. What freeware games would you download vs what commercial games?
Take wow for example… How many people spent how many man hours of work creating that game? And how much per month do they have to pay in upkeep to keep it running?
6 million people play that game and it is supposed to not only be made for years by dozens of people for 40-60 hour weeks but also be upkept for free? That does not even mention ongoing maintenance such as finding hacks and blocking them etc.
where do they get said money from?
The ISPS are suppost to host them for free?
Where do they get the hundreds of servers from? They must buy them…
Hell, you make the excuse that software is not physical and can be duplicated infinately for free… What about R&D?
Keep the hardware paralell going…
Let’s use automobiles. Let’s say that all cars were free to be duplicated infinately. How many BILLIONS a year are spent on developing cars, upgrading cars, and making sure that they are safe? Assume that everyone that did car R&D/upgrades/etc had another day job and they only did this during their spare time… And were not allowed to charge for their work…. how much would get done?
The bottom line is: Humans are smart. Sometimes somebody doing something in their spare time can do something or make somethign great. Sometimes it can change the world. But how many things around you were made for free?
Even the things people discovered in their spare time were usually jsut theories and they required money to finalize everything. Money makes things happen, and so to move an industry you need money. Not free.
Name a single industry in the whole world that operates without money and without charging anything to ANYONE for their services… How would the software industry be any different?
/rant
if you goto the website, you can click to download Salvation within *seconds* and it has a 30-day trial period!
Usually the most downloaded cracked software is either:
a) a popular game that “n00bs” have no privilege obtaining - because if they were real human beings, they’d buy it and develop their skills legitimately
b) Expensive (over $300)
That is not the case here. I don’t see anyone who is bashing the “little guy developer” saying anything about how they’ve tried the software and it wasn’t their cup of tea, or how entirely uninteresting the software was to them.
Why do you exist.. and how are you going to leave your mark in the history of mankind?
“By downloading cracked software and laughing in the face of the developer”
I salute you
The whole of this subject like so many others is one of respect.
An individual is respectable and a faceless corporation is not.
Though exceptions run in both directions, mostly people will not harm other people while they see no people to be harmed in a corporation.
Piracy is like any symbiotic relationship, if the symbiot takes to much from the host, both die. Take to little and neither profits.
I just hope nobody glasses over the sandbox.
Good for him! I too am an independent software developer and use occasional pirated software, but only things which I could both live without and would never be willing to pay whatever the set price was to use. I have bit torrent open right now downloading things I wouldn’t pay for too, and seeding back at least as much as I take.
And one day, I hope my software will be of enough value for people to pirate it, and on that day, I also hope they won’t have to bother! While I’d love to make some money to cover medical costs and so on, I see no point in making my software only available to those who know how to pirate and those who are richer than I am. I only sell the bits people can live without, and only at a price I’d be willing to pay. :)
Hooray for this glimpse of respect for fellow humans, and hooray for the poor people too!
People can argue all they want about the morality surrounding piracy, but it was said before…it cannot be stopped.
I also think that lawyers should begin to pay more attention to how the internet has changed how they can do business. You can no longer threaten people with legal action in the form of an angry letter. Because with the internet the little pirate is not alone anymore he has support all around the world (even people willing to donate money to help him). Not only that but he posts the angry letter that the lawyer sent him up on his site..and what does he get? Encouragement from his fellow supporters but most likely he’s just riled up a pack of wolves who will not begin boycotting and badmouthing the company. Now was all that worth it just to get one little pirate to stop? I don’t think so.
and also like chaos said…distributing software is not like physical property. MMORPGs are the exception they naturally require money to run because it is an active system and justifiably they need to have monthly payments.
But I ask you is $60 worth it to buy a PS2 game that is only about 10 hours long?
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